Winston must get off to better starts

He started out slow last year, the first quarter being by far his worst throughput his rookie season, and he started out slow again this year, his first quarter on Sunday being near disastrous.

Winston typically does a nice job of bouncing back, though and he did that again during the Bucs 31-24 win over the Falcons.

After missing on three of his first six throws, one of which was picked off, Winston rebounded to complete 21 of the last 27 passes he threw for 270 yards and four touchdowns.

“Sometimes you just need to get things flowing a little bit and that’s what he needed,’’ Bucs wide receiver Vincent Jackson said of Winston. “He just needed to get the bugs out a little bit.’’

It’s been that way before with Winston. A year ago his first quarter completion percentage of 54.9-percent and his first-quarter passer rating of 79.6-percent were the worst he produced in any quarter.

On Sunday, Winston had a passer rating of 10.7 in the first quarter, but he found his rhythm in the second quarter and went on to produce the second-four touchdown game of his career.

“Sometimes people just have to warm up,’’ said tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who caught one of Winston’s four TD passes. “You know, we don’t have a bullpen here like they do in baseball for guys to really get warm in , so those first few drives sometimes, they can be tough.’’